


There You'll Be

by fanoftheknight



Series: More Than Words [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Reminiscing, Sobbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:46:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23543344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanoftheknight/pseuds/fanoftheknight
Summary: Nineteen year old Poppy Mormont returns home from university and reminisces with Daenerys about her father, a man that she had never been able to know.
Relationships: Jorah Mormont/Daenerys Targaryen
Series: More Than Words [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1495487
Comments: 19
Kudos: 20





	There You'll Be

**Author's Note:**

> I'll start posting the longer 'Mr Starf*cks' next week, but here's a little one shot that I wrote a little while ago as part of the 'More Than Words' series.
> 
> Thanks, as always, go to SlytherinHowl for the beta read!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“Mum, how many times have I told you to just ask if you want me to get something down for you?” Poppy Mormont told her mother, doing her best to keep the frustration from her voice as she saw the kitchen chair leant haphazardly against the wardrobe in the master bedroom.

At nineteen, Poppy was in her first year of university in Aberdeen, but that didn’t stop her from coming back on a regular basis to check on her mother. Her grandfather, Jeor, passed away late last year and Poppy was keenly aware just how alone her mother would be now that she herself was away enjoying the life of a student.

Poppy had almost refused to attend university and nearly dropped out after her grandfather passed away, but Daenerys insisted that she was fine and that Poppy needed to put her future aspirations ahead of ‘her silly old mother,’ which was swiftly followed up by ‘it’s what your father would have wanted.’

It was that line above all others that would make Poppy acquiesce to whatever was asked of her. Her father, a man that she had never been able to know except through the videos he’d made for the first eighteen years of her life, was such a huge part of her life, yet never actually in it.

Poppy turned at the sound of the older woman entering the bedroom and felt her frustration melt away as she looked at her. Despite the passing years, she still had the same blonde-white hair and piercing eyes of her youth. Age had brought an increasing number of lines on Daenerys’ face and a heaviness around her waist, but Poppy knew her mother was every inch the beautiful woman she had been when she married her father.

Daenerys seemed to look genuinely embarrassed and offered a meek smile by way of apology. “I thought it was time to do a little spring cleaning and once I got started…well, I got a little carried away.”

Poppy knew how important it was for her mother to keep busy now that she was no longer there to keep an eye on her each day. She also knew just how determined she could be when she set her mind to something, and that she wouldn’t have given a second thought to climbing onto a rickety old chair to reach the top of her wardrobe.

“I could have come home and found you dead on the floor with a broken neck,” Poppy said tiredly, flopping down on the edge of the bed.

Poppy felt her hand being squeezed reassuringly. “You worry too much,” Daenerys said softly.

“You’re the only family I have left,” Poppy shot back quickly. “I’d kind of like it if you stuck around for a while longer yet.”

Her mother looked at her, serious now. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” They sat in silence for a number of moments before Poppy felt something heavy being placed in her lap. 

“What’s this?” She asked, eying the large bound book.

Daenerys smiled at her. “I found it at the back of the wardrobe while I was cleaning. I thought you might like to look through it.”

Poppy grinned at the photo of her father on the book’s front cover. “You made this?”

Poppy felt her mother lean her head on her shoulder. “Your father was the most infuriatingly stubborn man I’ve ever met. He refused to see what a good man he was and this was my way of showing him how wrong he was about that.”

Realising that she wanted to give the book more than a cursory glance, Poppy rose to her feet and held a hand out to the older woman to join her. “Let’s make a coffee and look through this properly."

Daenerys nodded and followed her eagerly to the kitchen.

Settled in the kitchen and both with a coffee in hand, Poppy cast her eyes over the front of the book.

“I made it for your father for his birthday one year,” Daenerys said by way of explanation. “I thought it was about time someone showed him all the good he’d done in his life.”

Poppy laughed at the photo on the front cover - her father standing alongside Thoros and Beric and a number of other soldiers.

“God, Beric and Uncle Thoros look so young!” Poppy said with a smile.

‘Uncle Thoros’ was a name that seemed to have stuck and even though she was an adult now, Poppy still called him that any time that she saw him.

To Poppy, Uncle Thoros had always been a source of humour and fun and the guy who always bought her the most unique birthday and Christmas gifts. He’d also been the man who’d inspired her passion for science, when he would show her cool and messy experiments that would annoy Daenerys but excite Poppy no end. He’d been a stable and positive influence in her life for as long as Poppy could remember.

It wasn't until Poppy was a teenager that her mother explained why Thoros never shared a drink when he visited. Daenerys tearfully told her how her uncle’s issues with alcohol only got worse after the death of her father. Her mother told her how close Thoros had been to him and her godfather Beric and how he had fallen apart at the funeral, but less than two weeks later turned up on her doorstep sober and clean-shaven, begging for a chance to be a part of Poppy’s life. Since being granted that chance Thoros had not touched a drop of alcohol since.

Even though he was her father, Poppy couldn’t help but admire how handsome the man she looked so much like was. 

“Katia totally thought Dad was a DILF,” Poppy said with a grimace.

It made Daenerys laugh. “So did most of my friends when they first met him. Your father wouldn’t hear any of it though,” her mother said, a sad smile on her face. “The first time I met him, he described himself as a ‘middle-aged, balding man with one bollock.’” Poppy saw her mother’s eyes fill with tears. “He never could see the good in himself. The stubborn fool.”

Poppy nodded her head as she looked through the pictures in the book and the letters from the soldiers that he’d served with.

“It looks like they really admired him,” Poppy said, eyes casting over another letter written from a former colleague. “Was he still serving in the Army when you met him?”

Daenerys shook her head. “He’d been out of the Army for many years when we met.” She watched as her mother took a sip of her coffee. “What is it that they say? ‘You can take the man out of the Army, but you can’t take the Army out of the man.’”

Poppy shot her a confused look.

“There weren’t many times that I could get up earlier than your father,” Daenerys said by way of explanation. “By the time I’d gotten out of bed, he’d have been out for a jog, had a shower and made breakfast before I could even string a coherent sentence together.”

Poppy chuckled. “Now I know where I get it from.” She turned the page and looked at another of the photographs of her father. In it he was shirtless and his left arm was free of scars, unlike several of the other photos she’d seen of her father.

“Did dad leave the Army because of his arm?”

Poppy missed the tears that fell from her mother’s eyes.

“He got badly injured in an explosion. It’s why he left,” Daenerys said sadly. “He was ashamed of how the scars made him look.”

“It made him self-conscious?” Poppy asked.

“He thought they were ugly, but to me they were beautiful. He was a hero in my eyes, even if he couldn’t see it, the obstinate old goat.” There was no malice in the words her mother spoke and it was clear just how much she still loved the man she had lost.

“Does it ever get any easier?” Poppy asked, knowing how much her mother missed him.

Daenerys shook her head sadly and sniffed away the tears that threatened to fall.

“Not really,” Daenerys answered as she ran a finger over one of the photos. “But it was without a doubt the happiest I’ve ever been.” She said, smiling through her tears. “Even though it was so short, it was the first time I’d ever felt truly loved by someone.”

Poppy watched her mother for a while before speaking again. “You loved other men before Dad?”

“I thought I did,” she answered. “I thought I knew what love was…but when I met your father, he made me realise just how often I’d settled for second best.”

“When did you know that you loved him?” Poppy asked.

Daenerys let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “The moment he walked into the hospital room and I realised I was sitting in his seat.”

“Love at first sight?” Poppy asked with a knowing smile on her face. “I thought that was just a myth.”

Daenerys took another sip of her coffee. “I did too until it happened to me. There was something instant between your father and I.” Poppy watched as her mother frowned. “It was like we’d known each other for years and yet we’d only just met. He made me feel safe…he made me feel like I was enough.”

“How did you know he was the one?” Poppy asked. At nineteen, she’d dated her fair share of boys and yet none of her relationships had lasted all that long. Boys her age were too consumed with their social status, their credibility and with how quickly they could get a girl in bed and claim another notch on their bedpost.

Poppy felt a pat her on the arm. “You have to date a few frogs before you realise what your Prince Charming looks like, but once you find him you need to never let him go and never, ever settle for second best. Find yourself someone who loves you for who you are…someone who makes you feel safe and wanted….someone that makes you feel special.”

“Like Dad did?” Poppy asked, giving her mother’s hand a gentle squeeze.

Daenerys smiled at her. “Your father wasn’t perfect, but then neither was I. We could drive each other mad and we argued like any couple does, but we made each other better people, if that makes any sense?”

“I wish I could have met him,” Poppy said sadly. “Grandpa, Beric, Uncle Thoros…they always talked about what he was like and what kind of father he would have been…”

Poppy had certainly not lacked for male influences in her life and between the three of them, her grandfather, godfather and uncle had been the ones to teach her how to ride a bike, play football with her and did all the things her father would have likely done with her. She’d even been lucky enough to have Thoros and Beric chaperone her to her high school prom and dressed in their military dress uniforms and had been the envy of all of her classmates.

Poppy heard a chair scrape back along the floor as Daenerys moved to get up. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to show you for a while. I’ll be back in a second.”

Poppy finished her coffee as she waited for her mother to return.

“This is the last photo I have of your father,” Daenerys said as she placed the photo down.

Poppy bit back a sob when she saw how gaunt and ill he looked. All she’d ever known were images of her father whole and healthy, and only now it finally dawned on her just what he and her mother went through in the final months of his life.

“Your father wanted…” Daenerys began before her voice hitched and faltered. “His final wish was to hold you in his arms before he passed away.”

Poppy could see her mother in the corner of the photo. “Who took this?” She asked, wiping at the tears on her own face.

“Mary and Stan,” Daenerys answered as she stifled another sob. “Your grandpa, Mary, Stan…we were all there in the final moments. It makes it easier…knowing that he got to meet you before he passed. You stopped crying the moment he held you in his arms.”

“I’m so sorry, Mum,” Poppy said, at a loss as to what else she could say. No words would ever take away the pain her mother felt.

Daenerys took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Don’t be,” she said as Poppy felt her squeeze her hand once more. “Your father was so happy to see you and hold you in his arms. It was peaceful…it was all we could have asked for.”

Poppy was overcome with the urge to take her mother in her arms and hold her close. Without thinking, she pulled the older woman towards her and kissed the top of her head. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

Daenerys tried to brush the comment off. “I’m far from it, Poppy.”

“What you’ve been through… I don’t know how you did it. I don’t think I would have survived it.”

“I had a lot of help,” Daenerys replied. “A wise man once told me that no one can get by in this life on their own. Living here in the home that we shared…it helps keep memories of your father close by.”

“What happens when this place gets too big for you?” Poppy frowned. “I worry about you being here all on your own.”

Daenerys let out a laugh. “I may be getting older, but I’m not that old yet. Besides, I’m sure your father is up there looking out for me and making sure I don’t fall off any old kitchen chairs.”

“Do you believe that there’s something else…somewhere we go after we pass away?”

Daenerys considered the question for a moment. “I like to think there is and that your father will be standing there waiting for me. I guess we’ll find out one day.”

She kissed her mother on the head one final time before releasing her from her vice-like grip, not wanting to lose the one member of the family she had left. 

“One day a long, long time from now, ok, Mum?”


End file.
